Residents of Garsdale and Dentdale in rural Cumbria (England) are debating two possible fixes for securing faster broadband, which follows last year’s dramatic failure of the Fibre GarDen (Digital Dales) scheme. One of the options involves going back to BT, while the other would call in the B4RN team.
The previous community supported Fibre GarDen project ran into a series of problems, which involved everything from managerial failings to serious contractor disputes with the ITS Technology Group and sub-contractors (e.g. here, here, and here), and as yet the outcome of all that remains uncertain. We’re particularly keen to know where all the local money went.
Meanwhile the two communities have been left to ponder the future. The original goal of Fibre GarDen had been to roll-out a new 100Mbps Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP/H) broadband network, which could have served around 580 premises in the villages, but obviously that plan is perhaps terminally stalled.
The last official update, which came via way of Garsdale Parish Council, suggests an alternative approach is now being considered that could potentially achieve the original goal or at least come close to it.
Garsdale Parish Council (Jan 2016 FibreGarden Update)
The AGM in November 2015 instructed the Board to consider alternative options and work has carried on over the last couple of months to explore these. … The project has clearly received a major setback but there are options for a way forward which can achieve the original objective of fibre to the home for every property in the two dales.
With a positive attitude for 2016 there is the potential to achieve our goal although this is likely to be with a significantly different approach.
After a bit of digging ISPreview.co.uk has learnt that there are currently two fairly firm solutions being considered, one of which involves the obvious approach of going back cap-in-hand to rescope for BT’s original proposal under the local Broadband Delivery UK scheme (Connecting Cumbria).
However BT’s approach may only benefit those in Dent and would still leave others excluded, which equates to around 155 potentially neglected premises. Interestingly the local authority has also been asked to “consider how many of those [155] households would actually wish to use it“.
The second option has come from a group called NEWCO, which is perhaps better perceived as being another one of B4RN’s spin-off projects. Regular readers will already know that B4RN has made a very successful model out of building affordable 1Gbps FTTP/H broadband networks in Lancashire, which are funded and built by the local community.
Recently B4RN has been busy moving into the border areas of Yorkshire and Cumbria, which means that they’re now in a position to potentially help both Garsdale and Dentdale. At this stage the details are very thin and there’s also a question mark over whether locals would even be willing to commit any more time or money to another community scheme (once bitten, twice shy). Mind you B4RN have a very strong track record and, unlike Fibre GarDen, their management is sensible.
Both options are currently being seriously explored, although they don’t appear to have come up in the latest council meeting and so a decision might not occur until the spring. At least by now the locals should be very familiar with the broadband waiting game. Meanwhile.. FibreGarden’s website is still infested with a virus.
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